There are very few musicians who are synonymous with their genre. Run DMC, for example, is hip hop but when you think of hip hop music, the average person could default to Tupac or Snoop Dogg or Notorious BIG or Rakim or even Drake. When the average person thinks of reggae, however, Bob Marley is the first artist their brain conjures up. This qualifies him as a rare example.
BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE is the real-life story of Bob Marley (played by Kingsley Ben-Adir) and the seemingly insurmountable resistance to his trying to bring love, understanding and compassion through music into the world. Just days before the Smile Jamaica Concert in December of 1976, Marley and his close circle of family and bandmates are attacked in his home. Marley, his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) and his manager Don Taylor (Anthony Welsh) are all shot, but all survive, and the decision is made that Marley will go ahead with the concert. Scarred by the incident and fearing for his family’s safety, however, he sends his wife and kids to the United States. He eventually leaves Jamaica and relocates to England where he begins to write new music with his band. Once Rita joins him across the Atlantic, a new album — Exodus — starts to take shape but so does adversity. He learns his manager is on the take, he feuds with his wife and he even learns he’s got skin cancer. He eventually returns to Jamaica and headlines the One Love Peace Concert in an effort to do his part to end the political divide in his home country.
Traditionally, January and February are where movie studios dump their lackluster projects so the summer can be packed with blockbusters, the Fall can get award season ramped up and then November and December see the heavy hitters get released in an attempt to be top-of-mind for recognition and accolades.
Thank God that logic didn’t apply here.
Whether the release date was set for Valentine’s Day in order to reinforce Marley’s message of love or it was because it was a victim of the SAG-AFTRA strike last year, don’t let the February release date fool you. ONE LOVE could’ve been released later this year and might have even benefitted from it. That said, movie goers should add Paramount to their Christmas card list simply for giving us a quality movie in the early months.
Think about how easy it would’ve been to screw up the lead role. Marley is universally adored, his music is universally loved and his message is universally needed. Those are massive shoes to fill but Ben-Adir does the unthinkable and is spectacular.
Not just good. Spectacular.
Not to be outdone, Lynch adds to her ever-growing resume as Rita. Watching Ben-Adir and Lynch go at each other in the streets is like watching two master violinists trade licks during the climax of a masterpiece. The writing is perfect, the quips cut like knives and the performances are flawless. The audience feels every millisecond of their complicated relationship while simultaneously rooting for both sides.
While it’s not a perfect film (there were some obvious lip sync issues, the concert crowds felt small when they were huge in reality, turning captions on will be essential for some, etc.), this is a must-see for music fans. It’s not waxing poetic to say that, in our current political climate, Marley’s message of love and unity is needed more than ever. One can hope this film can impress on the younger generations that there were (and still are) people who are trying to change the world for the better. Put simply, BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE is the first great film of 2024 and, even though it’s only February, I fully expect Ben-Adir to be on my Music City Film Critics Association ballot for Best Actor 10 months from now.
JKG SCORE: 9.0
Untitled Film Project 